All You Need to Know About This Year's South Bank Sky Arts Awards

The nominees for this year’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards were announced this morning at London’s Rosewood Hotel and reveal a diverse list of potential winners.

From Harry Potter to John Akomfrah and Zadie Smith to David Bowie, this year’s list of nominees celebrates and honours the diversity of British culture.

Melvyn Bragg, the awards host, said: ‘The South Bank Sky Arts Awards are unique.They are the only major Awards wholly dedicated to the Arts.They cover the spectrum – from pop music to classical music, from comedy to literature… They are focused on the best in the British arts which over the last couple of generations have steadily moved to the front in world status.’

What does it cover?

What do the winners get?

Apart from general acclaim, each year the 12 lucky winners get an artist bespoke-designed trophy. Following in the footsteps of Peter Blake and Anish Kapoor, this year Joe Hill and Samantha Scrase Dickins have created a take on the old-fashioned peep show machine with a special hand-painted 3D illusion inside.